Business models for a software component

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My company has developed a .DLL, meaning a software component, which needs to be a part of software to have value. This software component can be useful in a range of applications in everything from small projects, to large enterprise projects. My question is: How can I make money from this component? In other words, what are the viable business models for such a software component?

Sounds like you need to form partnerships with software manufacturers and see if you can license it to them (or sell it outright). The question is how much value does the .DLL add? Does it solve a problem for them that they can't solve themselves?
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Susan Jones8 years ago

what does the DLL do?
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Tim J8 years ago

It is an OCR component, which is very generic. I did not want to provide this detail, as I would like the answers to be general so they can be reused for other startups in the same situation
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David8 years ago

How about going after some vertical niches as well? Or contact development shops that have software for a vertical?
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Tim J8 years ago

Is this the primary product, or was it something you needed to have and built one, now you want to product-ize it?
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Tim J8 years ago

It was something I needed myself and got it built. Your idea of going after a vertical niche as well is a good one. It should be mentioned as an answer to the question.
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David8 years ago

5 Answers

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Some revenue models that I have seen:

Sell the license to the DLL for end users

Give away the component and sell consulting and services

Sell or give away the DLL and header files to developers and then they pay royalties for redistribution

OEM/license the software component for others to package

Sell/license the source code

If we knew more about the component and the market we might have better ideas.

There are online retailers for commercial software libraries. One possibility is to partner with an online retailer to sell your component. Take a look at Programmer's Paradise. Here is an example component that they resell.

There are also differences between developer licenses (the right to use your component to develop software) and redistribution licenses (the right to include your component in shipped software).

We are a software component company, although not so much in .NET. ComponentSource, mentioned, is the largest reseller, but they go for a much tighter linked relationship with you, it's not to everyone's taste. You also get sites like DevDirect, which is very .NET centric and cheap to use simply to advertise, rather than partner-based models like ComponentSource.

How you pitch depends very much on the price point of the component and the key with pricing is to remember you always have 2 initial competitors: